future plans of libraries - Bitly

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Feb 3, 2011 - majority of newly created jobs require a baccalaureate degree, but I will ... Online courses and degree pr
February 2011

FUTURE PLANS OF LIBRARIES THOMAS (TOM) ABBOTT, ACRL Vice President/President-Elect A proposed conversation with the profession Academic institutions have arrived at a historic educational crossroad. We are at a point where we must decide whether we’re ready to change our institutions and ourselves, adapt to the new generation of students and their demand for vastly different learning processes, or continue to muddle through by doing more of the same. This is not to say that what we are doing is of poor quality or inconsistent with the traditional college education, but rather that the scope and structure of traditional colleges and universities (as well as many of our own libraries) are no longer a good fit for many of today’s students or current societal methods of learning and doing. In response you might say that current labor studies report that the vast majority of newly created jobs require a baccalaureate degree, but I will argue that those predictions are based on the same traditional measures we’ve used for generations. The higher education degree is but one way to measure accumulated knowledge, experience, and skill; and until recently, college was one of the few ways to obtain the whole package of knowledge, and that degree remained the standard yardstick. For the sake of argument, let me ask you if you think someone without a college degree but with strong lifelong learning skills can manage to retrain himself or herself with the help and support from an educational or vocational center or online training? The usual reaction at this point is “yes it’s possible, but most people entering the workforce don’t have those lifelong learning skills and would fail at this self-study.” Point taken, but I do think this is the direction in which we are headed, and just to radicalize this a bit more, I will add that I also believe that just-in-time online training for specialized knowledge and skills, along with credentials and certificates may well replace many traditional college degrees in the not too distant future. At my institution in Maine, our 5,500 students average 32 years old, and most work more than 20 hours a week. The majority are parents, many single parents, and 70 percent are women. Each semester, we deliver more than 150 courses and 8 degree programs at a distance in Maine and beyond, and our students live and work in their home communities—as we have no residence halls. One of our essential tasks is to develop dynamic learning skills that will take these students in successful new directions. Of course, we are measured on degree completion by IPEDS, and that metric for our school is much lower than those of traditional four year schools. Our students Page 1 of 3

take many years to finish their degrees—stopping and starting again—but they do apply their learning along the way to new jobs and promotions. External pressure for a more practical standard for colleges is building at an accelerated pace. We are seeing it with the increase in part-time learners, and growing numbers of requests for just-in-time training for employment certification. Our online courses fill up first and have waiting lists often on the first day of registration. In fact the number one pressure point in U.S. higher education today is that students are registering for online courses in amazing numbers. Online courses and degree programs are increasing so rapidly that our more “traditional” faculty are struggling to keep up, and worrying about whether their on-campus courses will “make.” Teaching as a process of transferring knowledge to worthy students has become an anachronism. Today’s students expect to be active and engaged in learning and creating knowledge in groups. Instructional designers are running full speed to help faculty recreate courses for online platforms. Based on these observations, I believe that most college campuses and their academic libraries will dramatically and completely change in the next ten years. Higher education for the majority of our post-high school students will be provided through technology and in small chunks of applied and practical knowledge—all available via the ubiquitous Web. Campuses will become resource centers of knowledge creation and instructional development, and students will study independently and in online communities at a pace that works for them—and that is where academic libraries will once again come into their full prominence. We already know how to do this—we can do it well, and now perhaps the rest of the institution will catch up. How should academic librarians respond to these new challenges? We began the process of adapting to these new challenges when we created our first online catalogs in the mid 1980s. We’ve seen it in our students’ eyes and through their questions as they wrestle with the “Google vs. the Library” discussion. We regularly encounter faculty members who are not cognizant about online resources or how best to use them. We work with administrators who are unclear about why libraries and their librarians continue to be their campus’ greatest resources. This disconnect between academic libraries and their institutions is related, I believe, to the fact that traditionalist leaders and many senior faculty have not been engaged with these in-your-face changes in the same way librarians have. The college of these administrators and faculty is one of bricks and mortar and traditional libraries. They are not yet capable of providing adequate infrastructure support for their academic librarians, or faculty for that matter, to make the transition. Instead they wait, on the fence between the traditionalists and the new online agitators, leaving us as librarians without the means to respond adequately. And until our institutions take a position, we won’t be able to successfully engage the faculty in this new educational process. The need to restructure the academic library is pressure point number two for me. How do you know we really are facing a sea change? 

Librarians struggle daily to convert those who believe open Web-based information systems (Google et al.) are an inexpensive replacement for libraries and librarians.



Librarians notice that libraries have become for some little more than study and Internet access spaces, and we aren’t sure what to do with that.

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Librarians find it difficult to influence or impact student learning outcomes inside academic discipline courses.

Link the need for academic libraries to reinvent themselves with the pressure on colleges to change, and we have the perfect opportunity for academic libraries to get in on the ground floor of reinventing a new version of higher education for this new century. Librarians will find a home in this new environment because we already live in this new open and flexible world of teaching, learning and helping create knowledge—usually at the cutting edge of change. As academic librarians, we have a strong history of supporting independent learning opportunities—one-on-one and in small groups, and we have always been able to explain the value of academic libraries to a college education. So what is our library plan for the future? Find a platform for influencing campus discussions and politics at this ground floor level. Organizational transitions to new systems are usually bumpy. Librarians who can stay focused while adapting and adjusting to this rocky road can become leaders and provide creative solutions. During this time of transition, you must expand your sphere of influence at your institutions by joining, being elected to, or just showing up at college/university-wide activities such as strategic planning task forces, budget planning committees, core/general education councils, fundraising events, and legislative receptions. You are a good researcher—study the issues and become an expert contributor. Speak out with a common refrain: “The world of higher education is changing, and we must be a part of that change.” When others decline to volunteer for leadership positions, step up—even if it means rescheduling your library responsibilities— you only get one shot at this. In the academic program arena, find ways to break into the course development process. Take the chair of the curriculum committee to lunch and suggest ideas that might help his or her efforts to make needed changes. Pair every academic librarian with one or more faculty members teaching online to create a course-related Web package of resources, and talk about student learning outcomes from your perspective—try to find common ground with his or her course learning outcomes. Go to their classes. Most faculty members do not understand how a librarian’s investment in information fluency relates to their goals of critical thinking and preparing a research paper. To them you are a trainer of skills rather than an educator. We must eliminate this disconnect. My longer term goal for academic librarians is to help move us back into the mainstream of higher education where your time and expertise is valued as part of the daily higher educational process. You should be welcomed in the course and syllabus design process, where your information fluency student learning outcomes are fully built into each and every academic course. We’ll worry later about how many more librarians you need to do this.

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